I recently taught an information literacy instruction session using Prezi rather than MS PowerPoint. PowerPoint is like an old friend. No matter how long we spend apart, we are still close friends, and i still feel comfortable by him. PowerPoint is an easy crutch, and though it’s ease of use could be debated, I am used to using it. But in a world of new and emerging cloud based media tools, I figured it was time to step into the future and try Prezi for instruction. I found it fun, and at least a little bit more visually appealing than PowerPoint. But like many tools there are a few advantages and disadvantages of Prezi that I would like to discuss.

Positive (why use prezi)

Prezi is cloud-based (no more USB keys or emailed ppt files)

Prezi is free

Prezi is cool. This may seem like a tiny point, but in a world where students are constanly on social media and/or on their iphones and their professors are often in the dark ages, librarians need every tiny advantage we can get to show students that the should listen, even if that is a subtle message that we are up to date on modern technologies.

The element of surprise. This is related to the above point on getting that advantage or “wow” factor. Give the students something different and they may pay attention (maybe).

Prezi is fun to use. There are lots of cool features to play with including zooming and spinning effects.

Negative (why stick with PowerPoint)

You can’t send the file to student (how big of a disadvantage is a link just as good)

Students aren’t able to conveniently print slides

too many spinning effects have caused complaints of motion sickness in the past

a bit more difficult to use for images

The learning curve (yes it takes a while to learn how to properly build a “path” and connect elements)

More difficult to edit than a powerpoint. Once you have built your path it takes a little effort to add a new element in the middle. It isn’t as easy as clicking “new slide.”

Conclusion: Is Prezi right for you?

This depends on you, your audience, and the content of your presentation. If your presentation is image heavy or if you know your audience is more comfortable with slides and/or wants to print them out then there is nothing wrong with powerpoint. I am still using PowerPoint for a session tomorrow. If your audience is a bit younger and/or a bit more tech savvy then I would highly recommend trying out prezi. It just might make preparing your next presentation a bit more fun.

Basically, it explains what academic librarians and library and information science researchers have known for years. Society has a myth that young people are “tech savvy” and know how to search because they are conformable using google. Yet students show a complete inability to think critically about search results, or ability to search effectively and efficiently. Students do not understand subject terms or controlled vocabulary. As a general rule students enter the first keyword or keyphrase that they think of and then click on the first few links. Without understanding how search algorithms work.

This fact is sad, however, just as sad was the fact that this segment never once mentioned librarians. Librarians have known about this for years. We are the ones who help students search, and teach search skills. This phenomenon has been researched (look up Gross & Latham). Gros and Latham found that students have a false confidence in their search skills. For decades now, librarians have known about the lack of search skills (and just generally information literacy skills), and have been working to fix this. Librarians (and LIS researchers) are the ones developing courses, one-off instruction sessions, and online tutorials/screencasts/webinars, and many other methods of teaching students information literacy skills (including search skills, as well as critical evaluation skills).

We need to be careful about the assumptions we make about college students and young people. We assume they are tech savvy because they have an smartphone and an ipad or say that they know how to search. Research shows that students almost only use google, and cannot critically evaluate information found online. Students do not know how to find good credible resources for their assignments, and in their everyday lives. Not only librarians, but also high school teachers and university instructors (and administrators) need to prioritize information literacy as a critical skill that young people need to develop, and do not have.

Unfortunately, these are not intuitive skills and must be learned, and learning requires a teacher, and quality teachers cost money. It isn’t enough to prioritize with our mouths, administrators and government (education) officials need to prioritize information literacy/search skills with their budgets.

I am a nerd when it comes to Greek manuscripts. So I was excited when my wife sent me a link to zooniverse’s newest citizen science project “Ancient Lives.” The project is run by the University of Oxford, and they are looking for help transcribing the Oxyrhynchus Papyri.

The Oxyrhynchus papyri are one of the largest archaeological discoveries of the past century. These papyri were found in what is basically a garbage dump. Hundreds of thousands of papyri fragments thrown away by Egyptians in (approximately) the 6th century AD are a treasure to modern researchers, and give us a vast amount of information about the ancient world. Included in the findings are many early christian text such as New and Old Testament manuscripts as well as apocryphal texts such and the Gospel of Thomas. Yet this discovery did not only have religious significance, there are many important mundane (or at least non-sacred) text ranging from manuscripts of Homer to ancient Egyptian financial record and loan contracts (an invaluable source to provide previously unknown insights into business and banking practices in the ancient world).

Yet although these papyri were discovered over a century ago currently only about 2% of them have been transcribed and made available to researchers. In an unprecedented appeal to the public, Oxford university has made over 400,000 papyri images available online and is asking armchair archeologists or even people who simply like word puzzles to help them in their effort to transcribe these important documents.

Here is how it works. Once you sign up for a zooniverse account and go to the Ancient Lives you simply click on “transcribe” and you will be given a piece of papyri, it could be tiny and have one letter, or a massive manuscript. Here is one I have been working on for a few days:

Then click on the greek letter right on the manuscript and then select one of the possible letters from the guide below. Eventually it will begin to look more like this:

The nice thing about this project is one does not necessarily need to know Greek, it is fun puzzle to solve just by matching characters (but knowing Greek words does help). The most exciting part of this project for me is getting access to and helping such an important project.

I have created a screencast of a presentation I have given at a conference, and several academic library’s professional development days. The mic might have been too close to my mouth so I may have to re-record the audio. But in the meantime, let me know what you think.

I have been working hard back and forth with a copyeditor at University of Toronto Press to put the finishing touches on my paper entititled “Subject Guides in Academic Libraries: A User-Centred Study of Uses and Perceptions,” which will be published in the December issue of the Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science. You can read this pre-print pdf if you are interested. I presented this paper at the Canadian Association for Information Science, and it was ranked as one of the top abstracts submitted to that conference, and I was invited to publish in their journal.

This is quite exciting for me as it is my first sole author publication.

Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I Started My MLIS

Like so many MLIS students, I started my second masters degree with the sort of naive optimism mostly found among first year undergrads. I had never worked in a library before starting my degree, and assumed just getting the MLIS would make me instantly hire-able, and prestigious universities would be lined up around the block to offer me high paying positions. I soon learned that the field is highly competitive and there are not a ton of entry level jobs. I also realized that everyone applying has an MLIS and I needed to do something to stand out. But I was fortunate, and I did pretty well for myself. I am not claiming to be a guru in getting hired right out of school but I wanted to put down some advice because I think I have learned a little about making yourself hire-able that I hope would be helpful to pass on. I need to add two caveats though: 1) these are only things that have worked for me and may not necessarily work for you AND 2) I am an academic librarian and heavily weighted this towards academic librarianship it may not work for public libraries.

I. Work

If you haven’t worked in a library get a job. This should be priority #1

Work as much as you can and really build connections with librarians

Try to do many things at work

get some collections experience

work on the reference desk

ask to teach/co-teach a information literacy instruction session

volunteer to be on a committee

Basically all the different things you do at work are things you will be able to put on your resume and talk about in an interview. You are much more attractive to a potential employer if you have already done things that they expect you do in the job (i.e collections, instruction, reference etc…)

II. Network

This was probably the most difficult part for me, but also the most profitable when it came time to get a job. I am not a schmoozer, but networking isn’t just about walking up to librarians out of the blue and introducing yourself. Most library schools have programs set up to help with this. My library school had what is called “partners week,” which allows students to meet and shadow a librarian for an afternoon (I got a job at one of the places that I did a partners week). There are also practicums, and I know several people hired at the library where they did their practicum. I made it my policy to have worked at, or at least met someone from every academic library in the city. Take advantage of the opportunities presented to you to meet librarians, you don’t need to give them your resume. Just chat with them. It might make a huge difference in the future if you are a face, and not another name at the top of a resume.

III. Research

Research is another great way to network. Although most people do not do research for networking purposes, it was a very effective way to meet librarians. For myself, I was a research assistant for a professor, and was on a research team with the HR manager of a huge library system in my area. In addition, I was able to meet librarians from across the country when presenting my research at various conferences. And these are the two ways to get involved in research:

Work as a research assistant

you will be on a research team

you might get to present at conferences

you might get your name on a publication

Conduct your own research

You can really impress librarians who see your research at a conference

conferences are a great place to meet potential employers

publish your work: this looks good on a resume and shows a dedication to evidence based practice

try to pick a topic that is timely and relevant

IV. Volunteer

Volunteer for student council, the curriculum committee, or even a student club. All of this looks good on a resume.

V. School

School has proven to be the least important component to getting a job for me. Don’t take school too seriously. Very few (lets say no) jobs are going to ask for your transcript. I’ll put this bluntly: you grades don’t matter for anything other than scholarships. In fact, I recommend focusing on your coursework less, and focusing on work and research more as these have proven more profitable to me in the long run.

Having said that, I would attempt to take relevant courses. Don’t fill your schedule with children’s literature if you want to be an academic librarian (conversely don’t forget to take children’s literature if you want to be a children’s librarian). Get what you can out of school. Use it to fill gaps in your skill set. Make sure you get some technology skill such as web design, html, css, php etc… Many jobs, even entry level jobs expect new people to have technology skills and be able to jump right in on a website redesign project.

I hope you found this advice helpful. If not sorry, it’s jut what worked for me and I thought I’d share.

I just randomly decided to start a blog. I don’t know if I will constantly (i.e. daily) update the blog. But from time to time I have thoughts that I want to get out and a blog is a way for me to at least get things out of my head and off my chest.

Just a warning my thoughts are relatively random, as are my interests. As I mention in my about me page. I have the privilege of being a science librarian and a religious studies librarian, and I have many opinions with science and of biblical studies. I am also interested in the more technical side of librarianship, and have done usability testing, as well as both qualitative and quantitative research to help optimize library websites and subject guides to better meet student’s needs. And well to be honest I may make the occasional about cycling, beer, music.

But if you have somehow found this blog, please feel free to look around. I’m glad you are here.